With the Railways sticking to the rule book to allow utilisation of its land to construct an approach road towards Veeranagara and the Mangaluru City Corporation failing to divert a perennial stream, the road underbridge (RuB) near the Mangaluru Junction Railway Station on Padil-Bajal Road continues to be an irritant to residents of Bajal and surrounding areas.
The then Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda had laid the foundation stone for the work in August 2014 and set a February 2015 deadline to complete the project. However, it has missed several deadlines to the misery of thousands of residents of Bajal, Faisal Nagar and surrounding areas. While the Railways has been able to complete the concrete box structure, the corporation has not been able to complete the approach roads.
While the main road goes straight towards Bajal, the one immediately after the underbridge leads to Veera Nagar and on the right leads to Vijaya Nagar. The road to Veera Nagar has to utilise some portion of the Railway land, for which, the corporation says, the former was objecting to and the work was getting delayed.
Though the corporation was aware of the existence of a perennial stream immediately after the underbridge, little was done to allow free flow of water without disturbing the vehicular movement through the bridge. As rain has started, water is getting accumulated inside the concrete box forcing vehicle users to wade through the pool.
Instruction
While Mangaluru South MLA J.R. Lobo visited the underbridge on Tuesday and asked the corporation to speed up the construction of the drain to facilitate smooth flow of the stream, Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, held a meeting with Southern Railway officials to iron out differences on construction of the approach road.
Mr. Kateel told The Hindu that he had asked the Railways to spare its land for construction of the approach road. A final understanding would be reached when the Divisional Railway Manager of Palakkad would come for a meeting scheduled on June 30, he said.
Area councillor Vijay Kumar Shetty said that the corporation would deploy two automatic water pumps to suck out water as and when it gets accumulated within the box. As of now, one pump is functioning, but it was insufficient.
The corporation might also increase the height of the box base by about three inches to prevent water logging after the monsoon, he added.
